In the feudal period, the desire to win on the battlefield had a great relationship with the number of soldiers and horses, and horses were an extremely important strategic material in ancient times, and only with horses could they form cavalry and occupy an invincible position on the battlefield.
During zhu Yuanzhang's reign, he was bent on expanding the number of horses in the country, improving the quality of horses, and finding people who were good at raising horses, once taking shelter in the rain at a farmer's house, hearing the name of the other party, and ordering his family to be a horse breeding officer for generations.
Valuing the horses
Horses played an extremely important role in ancient times, and the reason for the decline of the Song Dynasty and his two major opponents had a large number of cavalry had a great relationship. The number of horses in western Xia exceeded 500,000, the number of cavalry was also very large, and the number of horses in the Liao state was even more than one million, compared with the number of horses in the Song Dynasty.
In addition, the state's emphasis on literature and light weapons can be used as war horses even less. Later the Song Dynasty was overthrown. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang only had his own political power by virtue of many years of conquest, and he also attached great importance to war horses, and began to develop horse breeding at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
Although horse farms were also established in various places when the Yuan Dynasty was established before, hoping to increase the number of horses, the number of horses in the early Ming Dynasty was still very small, and at first Zhu Yuanzhang reluctantly formed his own cavalry team by seizing Yuan Dynasty horses. The number of horses that went through many conquests after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
From 150,000 horses in Hongwu 5 years to Less than 50,000 horses left in Hongwu 23 years. In order to expand the number of horses, the Ming Dynasty also set up its own set of horse administration system, set up special officials, and there were special horse herding houses around the emperor's mausoleum, which were mainly responsible for raising horses.
Missing officials
During the feudal period, many emperors would build mausoleums for themselves after they had just ascended the throne, but after Zhu Yuanzhang established his political power, he was bent on pacifying the four sides, hoping to let the people live a good life, and there was no time to consider his own mausoleum, until the country pacified the people to live and work in peace, he remembered to build a mausoleum for himself.
Because the construction time was too short, his mausoleum was not repaired until his death, which is still admirable. In the process of building the mausoleum, in addition to sending special tomb repair officials, he also needed to send a troop around the mausoleum.
As a royal mausoleum, people are not allowed to live around, and the surrounding large areas of mountain forest land are not allowed to hunt here. This team is stationed here to be responsible for the safety of the mausoleum, to protect the peace after the death of the emperor, in order to take advantage of the surrounding natural conditions, there will be a thousand households of herding horses, which are specially responsible for raising horses here.
It is forbidden for people to enter the area to cut down trees and hunt animals. This official position is not high, but there are many contents in charge, especially typical of his going to raise horses, not only need to have knowledge, but also must have experience in raising horses, to ensure the healthy growth of horses, rapid reproduction.
Shelter from the rain
On this day, Zhu Yuanzhang came to the location of his mausoleum, wanted to see how the mausoleum was built, and also learned that the thousand households of the herding horses lacked a chief. When they were thinking about who would be more convenient for this official position, suddenly it rained heavily, and there were still people around the mausoleum, and the group accelerated their pace into the home of a peasant family around them.
I hope to be able to rest here and leave when the rain stops. This peasant saw that there were many servants of the other party, and he also had great respect for them and treated them with heart. After seeing this farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang began to talk with him, wanting to understand the living conditions of the people in the capital area.
I learned that although the other party lived in the mountains and forests, he did not lack food and clothing, and his life was getting better and better compared to previous years. Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied, and later asked the farmer what his name was, and the other party said that his name was Dong Mao.
The emperor heard this name and thought it was very interesting, and after thinking about it carefully, he laughed and directly ordered him to be a thousand households, specifically responsible for raising horses. Because in the eyes of the emperor, after his name was taken apart, it was completely composed of "thousand", "li" and "grass".
The best of the ancient horses was the Thousand Mile Horse, which traveled very fast and was very robust, and the value was very high, and if the horse wanted to grow well, it had to eat more grass, and only abundant water grass could make the horse grow rapidly. The emperor came here to inspect the construction of the mausoleum and learned that there was just a thousand households with horses missing.
I was thinking about who was suitable for this official position, but suddenly it rained heavily, and when I avoided the rain, I met a person whose name contained thousands of grasses, and this person was completely a horse breeder sent by heaven to him. That's why he gave this order and let his family hold the official position of herding thousands of households here for generations.
epilogue
In addition to raising horses by the government and setting up horses raised by thousands of households, the Ming Dynasty would also compensate the local people for them to raise horses, and even let the people raise horses without grain tax. Later, the horse market was opened in the border area, and by its heyday, the number of military horses in the entire Ming Dynasty had reached 400,000, and the combat effectiveness of the cavalry was further strengthened.
Zhu Yuanzhang heard the name of the other party, so he named him a herding horse thousand households, generations of officials, although slightly abrupt, the ultimate purpose is to increase the number of horses in the country, which can also be seen from the Ming Dynasty's emphasis on horses.